Prevent specific wifi connections to RT-AC1750 B1 when operating as a repeater in ASUS-WRT?

[dpwhite]

I continue to try and wrangle my WLAN to conform to my will and it remains difficult 😞

My main router is an Asus GS-AX3000 and I have an RT-AC1750 B1 running as a repeater. Both use standard ASUS-WRT for now.

It is interesting as devices that are connected to the wifi of the repeater are shown on the main routers as if they were connected via ethernet. However, on the repeater they show as if they are indeed wifi devices and vis-vis. I guess it makes sense. But I was surprised anyhow. More newbie-ism!

Anyhow, I would like to prevent some/most of my wifi devices from connecting to the repeater. This happens even though the devices are closer in proximity and signal to the main router, where I want them. I THINK this MAY happen during the nightly reboots of the main router - which I have always done at 4:30am. Since the repeater is a new addition, I have not yet implemented a nightly reboot of it. My guess is that while the main router is rebooting, at least some wifi devices still see the repeater's wifi (which has same SSIDs and channels as the main router - seemingly setup by the ASUS-WRT firmware that way - which is fine by me so I don't have to re-program or deal with additional complexity). So they connect to that and stay there until they have some good reason to switch back to the main router (like my turning the repeater off).

Normally, I would try to use MAC filtering on the repeater to try and prevent the devices in question from gaining a connection there. But in repeater mode, there is no UI for doing this. It may be that in this mode it simply will not work or it may be that ASUS-WRT is simply dumbing-down things to make repeater setup easier. If the latter is true, then I wonder if there is some way for me to setup the mac filtering via command line ssh/telnet?

Thanks

[jzchen]

As a repeater does the RT-AC1750 report the true MAC address of the clients?  I noticed that practically all dedicated repeaters/range extenders create some sort of virtual MAC address.  (I have quite a few of them).

I would just switch it to an AiMesh node....

[dpwhite]

Thanks, as always, for your response and help.

It is interesting that I do, in fact, see the real MAC on both sides of all this. I had read too that they might be virtualized somehow. But seemingly not the case here.

Regards MESH mode, I really have to learn about that. I have managed to avoid it entirely thus far. But both units will support it. One reason why I have avoided it is that the RT-AC1750 as repeater is new here. Prior to this I fought with a recycled Netgear of similar vintage and some other older units as well. I suspected that none of them would have worked in mesh mode.

Best

[jzchen]

It's always good to compare "apples to apples" and I applaud you for that.  Mesh does have a catch, where it is limited by the weakest link so to speak.  This is because for hopping from node to node, channel and bandwidth need to match, (per my understanding).  One generation WiFi 6 and WiFi 5 should be fine.  There should be a WiFi Agile Multiband setting, and I suggest you turn it on for all bands, on both router and repeater.  In AiMesh there's an option to bind a client to a specific node.  I have had mixed results trying this method, hence why I did not mention it outright.  For disclosure I have 0 bound clients on my network right now.  The reason is that I found that bound clients, if I succeeded to move one to another node in the first place, may have suddenly dropped off the network completely when bound.  I suggest if you want to try bind the client to the preferred node, then remove the binding after, so it can roam to the other if needed and not lose connection.

[dpwhite]

Thanks as always.

I had read somewhere that mesh wasn't good for IoT stuff and streaming cameras. So that was a worry as I have a bunch of that stuff.

Your comment also seems to confirm that one big benefit of mesh is roaming which is mostly of no concern to me at all since 99% of my stuff is permanently situated.

But binding a client to a specific mesh node might be what I was looking for. I will have to try all that.

Best!

[Saltgrass]

Just in case you did not see this how-to, maybe it would help.

I don't have any set up as repeater mode.

[Wireless Router] How to set up repeater mode? | Official Support | ASUS USA

[dpwhite]

I did see that. Thanks. I recall now that when I did this, I used the exact same SSID for both  2.4 and 5Ghz as used on the main router. It did not prevent me from doing so. Previously, I tried an older Asus RT-N10 with its standard firmware and in repeater mode, it gave me no choice at all - it just repeated the same, 2.4 Ghz SSID and, within its limits, it worked fine. I would prefer not to have to re-configure a bunch of devices to use a new/different SSID. So part of this is also laziness. I am sure that using a different SSID would "solve" this problem of mine. So I may have to consider it. Best.

[dpwhite]

I want to say that I FINALLY found the time to experiment with mesh mode and binding specific devices to specific nodes. First, this was way easier to accomplish that I had anticipated. The AsusWrt does a good job with this. And I really had to make very few changes on my main router so the intrusion was minimal. Only the  RT-AC1750 that I was previously using in repeater mode had any significant changes made to it.

I am pleased to report that so far, this appears to give me exactly what I want - no drift in the connections of certain devices from a given router. And I am also pleased to see that the USB applications can still work in the same ways in this new, mesh client mode.

I do note some loss of management ability in mesh mode of the RT-AC1750. For example, now if I try to point my browser at the LAN IP to which I previously had the RT-AC1750 manually assigned (I know it is still there as I can ping it), I simply get sent to the main router's web pages. So I really cannot look at or manage any other functions of the mesh node - like nightly reboot, backup the new settings to my PC, etc. So if anyone has any work-arounds to this, please let me know.

Happy new year to all!

[dpwhite]

After only one day using the mesh mode, I have reverted to plain repeater mode. The main reasons are:

1. Upon rebooting the mesh client, it simply would NOT connect again from its location in the garage. It worked there yesterday. But not today. I brought it inside and it worked. But back out and it failed again and again. Makes no sense to me. But when reverted to repeater mode, it works immediately. Sheesh!

2. I found that the "node binding" did not really seem to get me the results I hoped for. If the mesh node was offline, the devices "bound" to it all managed to seek/find/connect to the main router. Some did not drop their connection to the main router even when the mesh node came back online. Rats!

3. I missed having the management control over the RT-AC1750 that was lost in mesh mode. Perhaps this only serves to paint me as a control freak. But I honestly AM 🙂

[jzchen]

Sadly as a mesh it typically selects a specific channel as backhaul.  I could see how this could fail you if backhaul was 5 GHz and the garage is too far and the signal drops.

I have 0 experience with ASUS routers in repeater mode.  (I do have an RP-AX58 and RP-AX56, but they were wired AiMesh nodes when I used them).

There are limited settings available, just in case you ever go back to AiMesh, under -> AiMesh -> (select a node) -> Management (tab, on the right side).  Here you can select uplink priority (if you have 3 or more) and preferred uplink type/method where you can preferentially choose a channel or Ethernet port.  I am guessing selecting 2.4 GHz under this setting may have helped resolve the router dropping off AiMesh...